One person dead after Southwest Airlines plane with engine failure makes emergency landing

WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board said one death has been reported after a Southwest Airlines Co commercial jet suffered engine failure and diverted to Philadelphia earlier on Tuesday.

"We do have information there was one fatality," said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt at a media briefing. U.S. commercial airline accident deaths are extremely rare with the last U.S. accident death involving a passenger death in 2009, according to the NTSB. (Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by G Crosse)

RELATED: Southwest plane makes emergency landing